Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-13
OF INTEREST TO WEST TEXAS.
How to Prevent Drouths in Future by
Tree Planting.

San Antonio Express.
NEW ORLEANS, LA, May 2.-To avoid
drouths must be the all-absorbiDg topic
of the farmers and stoCkmen of yoIr sec
ton of the great state of Texas. We
have often thought that most of the ills
which incorrectly man is said to be he'll
to, are and can be readily traced to crlmi
nal negligence, being simply natures
compensation. The compromising me.
dunn for drouths is trees, and it is Just
Gs necessary for mans well being to
have trees around him as the duck to
90 to water, except in this csse the
mountain willnot cone TO MShomet; SC
your drouth-stTicken people must make
the mountain (the fOrest) come to them by
planting trees. Let every land owner OF
the treeless plains plant upon the highest
ground say ten acres Of pine So oliDgs and
as their trunks extend from terra tirma to
their azure ether their each and every
straW-leaved branch distilling turpentine
from the surrounding air will also con-
dense the atmosphere and bring the need
ed cooling rain. The Iarge-Ieaved south
ern pine, pinus Australis, so common in
northeastern Texas, is the best tree
that could be planted, although oak and
10 O less extent, this attractive condensa-
ton power; and the cedsrs, perhaps, less
than any other. All nature seeks its
sfinity. Barren rocks or parcheG grassy
plsins will not tend toward cloud max
ing: but how different the effect when
the mountain peak and hill top are clad
with natures lightning conductor, the
pine. The cloud strata is enticed to sur
do &c
collected and retained. Even the upper
oceanic currents of vapor will be arrested
in their onward course, and, condensing,
flow down the hills and mountains to
your burning plains, bringing fertility
where before waS drouth.
Had the ancient inhabitants of the Sa-
hara obeyed the laws Of nature by main
tang the equilibrium of forest growth
.hst ever rolling sea of sand would not
exist as a punishment for the infrsction
and lasting monument of their thought
less crime. The great cities of the Med
iterranean+Carthage, Tyre and Sidon-
throve at the expense, the exhaustion Of
the fertile plains to their south, which,
after giving up their all for tribute and
the desert as portion, have the poor sat-
isfaction in compensation therefor to see
S4lC SlllCS SAAOuOOO III SAS SSS&1 VIZ SAASSO
of the rapacity of man.
Yes, the climate of Western Texas may
be entirely changed by GASES of trees, and
innumerable springs, now unknown, will
burst forth from the heretofore parched
plains, bearing fertility end life-giving
properties on their rills. Now is the
time to commence planting; in fact, sap
lings may be safely planted ell through
the summer with little care at the start,
and as matter of fact many trees, psr-
tlcularly the pine, can best be planted in
the autumnal months; and certainly ar
rangements can or ought to be easily
made with nurserymen for saplings of
pine and ether forest trees by the hun
dred at reasonable rate.
An orchard of ten acres Of forest trees
on a prairie farm witt soon pay 81 the
costs and trouble OF its infancy, which
should be enough incentive to call it into
existence. We have no hesitancy in say
ing that, as well as identifying the land
scape, pnoderGtipg the heats of sum-
mer and the colds of winter, dispensing
the sirocco-like winds of the heated term
and also the billiards of the winter
months, that tree planting will be found
10 De very profitable undertaking in
NesVern Texas and will be the temb- |
stone OF the drouth. Yours truly,
w. 81. YATES,
Professor of Forestry and Climatology.